Here’s your IVF research roundup for January 2026. Each month, I highlight everything I’ve shared on Remembryo — including new IVF study summaries, popular social posts, answers to community questions, and a full list of research highlights with links and short summaries from my newsletter. The paywall is off for this post.
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🔗 Original studies are referenced in this post or within the linked Remembryo posts.
💡 Reminder: Terms underlined with a dotted black line are linked to glossary entries. Clicking these does not count toward your paywall limit.
Remembryo posts
Here’s what I covered this month on Remembryo. Click any image to read more.
In DOR patients, a 2025 study found that follicles measuring 15–17 mm at the time of egg retrieval were associated with the best outcomes, suggesting that optimal trigger timing in this group might occur earlier than standard thresholds used for normal responders. Read more.
A 2025 study found that after a first frozen embryo transfer, experiencing an early pregnancy loss did not increase the risk of loss in the next transfer, for both euploid or untested embryos. Read more.
A 2026 study suggests that restoring the protein SGO1 can reduce early chromosome separation in eggs, a process that might help reduce embryo aneuploidy, though this was not directly tested. Read more.
In a 2025 study, researchers masked mosaic PGT-A results and found that mosaic reporting did not meaningfully improve embryo selection or live birth prediction beyond standard criteria, suggesting that PGT-A’s main clinical value lies in identifying clearly aneuploid embryos. Read more.
A 2026 expert consensus from the Global Andrology Forum reviews how antioxidants are used in male infertility, showing which practices are supported by expert agreement and where evidence is still lacking. Read more.
A 2026 study found that switching frozen embryo transfer protocols after a failed transfer did not improve live birth compared with repeating the same protocol, including in PGT-A cycles, with some small and uncertain differences seen in specific natural FET types. Read more.
Top viewed posts on social
Here you can see the top 3 most popular posts for the month on Instagram, excluding the posts from above.
- Private equity now dominates IVF care in many US states. Private equity firms buy clinics, make operational changes to increase profits, and later sell them. In other medical specialties, this model has been linked to higher costs, staffing cuts, and worse patient outcomes. Using CDC IVF data and merger records, the authors found that by the end of 2023, 32.1% of US fertility clinics were private equity–affiliated and performed an estimated 54.0% of all IVF cycles, with even higher concentration in some states. Read more on Instagram or the original publication in JAMA.
- Can supplements and probiotics increase egg numbers during IVF? In a randomized trial of healthy egg donors, a combined micronutrient and probiotic supplement increased follicle numbers but did not improve egg yield or maturity in the main intention-to-treat analysis compared with placebo. Apparent benefits for mature and good-quality eggs were seen only in a much smaller per-protocol subgroup with perfect adherence, and the complex supplement mix makes it unclear which ingredients, if any, drove the effect. Read more on Instagram or the original publication in JARG.
- Does PGT-A help IVF couples with severe male infertility? In a randomized trial of 450 younger couples with severe male factor infertility, adding PGT-A to ICSI did not improve live birth rates after the first transfer or cumulatively over 12 months compared with no PGT-A. However, PGT-A was associated with a lower miscarriage rate after the first transfer, suggesting reduced pregnancy loss without an overall live birth benefit in this population. Read more on Instagram or the original publication in BMJ.
And here’s the top 3 older Remembryo posts (based on Instagram story views). Click any image to read more.
A 2025 study found that PCX, a surface molecule on endometrial cells, may lead to a shorter implantation window in women with endometriosis and might explain the stickiness of lesions outside the uterus. Read more.
A 2025 study found that nearly one in three IVF patients without PCOS or diabetes had insulin resistance, which was linked to lower success rates, but taking metformin before embryo transfer seemed to help. Read more.
Researchers in a 2023 study found increased miscarriage rates with mosaic embryo transfers compared to euploids, with no differences in neonatal outcomes. Read more.
IVF in the news highlights
Each week in the Remembryo newsletter, I share short summaries of IVF-related stories that made headlines. Below are 5 leading headlines for the month, with the first two summarized:
- A patch could replace IVF hormone injections. Researchers at McGill University are developing a light activated microneedle patch that could replace daily hormone injections before egg retrieval and automatically deliver medication at the right time. The technology is still being tested in animals, but it could one day make IVF less painful and possibly improve success rates by removing timing errors. Read more on CTV News.
- IVF opens doors for single moms in their 40s. IVF has made it possible for more single women in their 40s to become parents on their own, contributing to a record rise in single mothers by choice. For many, this option offers a meaningful way to build a family when a partner is not part of the picture. Read more on NPR.
- Scientists develop mRNA system to deliver treatments directly to the uterus. Check out the full story on John Hopkins Medicine.
- New genetic clues to aneuploidy risk. Read more on Inside Precision Medicine.
- US pregnancy workplace protections may be rolled back. Read more on Reuters.
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IVF questions from the community
Here are select questions that I answered either in my Facebook group or on Reddit.
- Can poor-quality blastocysts still lead to a live birth, and does PGT-A change the odds? Yes, a study found that some poor-quality embryos are euploid and can result in healthy live births, especially when they develop by day 5. When PGT-A was used, poor-quality embryos had lower miscarriage rates and higher live birth rates than untested poor-quality embryos, suggesting they shouldn’t be automatically discarded. Read more in my post Poor quality embryos can still lead to live births, especially after PGT-A.
- Does a “thin lining” under 7 mm actually reduce success rates when you’re transferring a single euploid embryo? In one study, a lining under 7 mm was linked to lower live birth odds in medicated and modified natural FETs, but not in natural FETs. Overall, lining thickness by itself wasn’t a strong predictor once embryo quality, age, BMI, and other factors were accounted for. Read more in my post How lining thickness affects success in 30,000 euploid transfers.
- For women aged 40 and older, how much do repeated embryo transfers add to the chance of a live birth? In one study, cumulative live birth rates increased with additional transfers but plateaued after a point, reaching about 56% for age 40, ~39% at 41, ~31% at 42, and dropping sharply after 43. Beyond roughly 2–3 transfers for women 43+ (and ~8 transfers at age 40), extra transfers added little to no additional chance of a live birth. Read more in my post Cumulative live birth rates in women aged 40+, after up to 10 transfers.
IVF research brief
🔒 The full research brief for the month begins below (paid subscribers only)
Each week I flag ~10-20 IVF studies I find most helpful. Some are covered in detail on Remembryo, but paying subscribers get short summaries and links to all of them, organized into categories like implantation, egg quality, PGT-A, etc.
Below is the full list of about 45 short summaries and links for studies that weren’t featured on Remembryo this month (available to paying members only).
🔍 Sneak peek: 3 select summaries from the month
- This randomized controlled trial found that natural FETs achieved similar healthy live birth rates as medicated FETs but were linked to lower risks of pre-eclampsia and other maternal complications. Read more (full article)
- This Cochrane meta-analysis of randomized trials found that blastocyst transfer likely increases live birth rates per transfer but offers uncertain gains in cumulative live birth and may raise preterm birth risk compared with cleavage stage transfer. Read more (abstract only)
- This meta-analysis found that among women with recurrent implantation failure, some immunotherapies were linked to higher implantation, pregnancy, or live birth rates, but effects varied by treatment. Read more (abstract only)
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About Embryoman
Embryoman (Sean Lauber) is a former embryologist and the founder of Remembryo, an IVF research and fertility education website. After working in an IVF lab in the US, he returned to Canada and now focuses on making fertility research more accessible. He holds a Master’s in Immunology and launched Remembryo in 2018 to help patients and professionals make sense of IVF research. Sean shares weekly study updates on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit regularly. He also answers questions on Reddit or in his private Facebook group.